There exists a plethora of child resistant caps, with thousands of variations in functionality and in design, as well as, bottle security devices that attach to the neck of a bottle. These types of protective caps may be typically utilized for securing medicines, vitamins and other materials stored in threaded neck containers.
The following prior art discloses the various aspects in the design and use of bottle locking apparatuses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,550, granted Apr. 23, 1996, to S. W. DeJonge, discloses a child resistant cap with automatic release key, where the child resistant cap device is for containers with a threaded neck openings. It includes an inner cap, an outer cap and a key bar. The inner cap has a top and a sidewall having threads on its inside. The sidewall has on its outside, one of a male attaching mechanism and a female attaching mechanism for receiving and attaching the outer cap onto the inner cap so as to be rotatably fixed thereon. The top of the inner cap has a release key engagement on its outside, and the outside of the inner cap also has one way ratchets or ratchet blocks to permit engagement of the outer cap for rotating thereon, in a single, closing direction and preventing engagement of them for rotating them in a single, opposite, opening direction. The outer cap has a top and a sidewall having on its inside the other of a male attaching mechanism and a female attaching mechanism. The top of the outer cap has a release key bar with a key that is pivotable for 180 degree rotation so as to be engageable with the key arrangement of the inner cap so as to permit opening of the inner cap by rotation of the outer cap when the release key is engaged in the release key engagement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,530, granted Feb. 11, 1997, to B. Holmgren, discloses an anti-theft device for bottles, where the invention relates to an anti-shop lifting device, intended to be passed onto and locked to a bottle-neck having an external circumferential bead. The device comprises an outer socket that can be shifted in relation to an inner socket between two end positions and is locked by latch means in one end position. A number of retainers distributed peripherally on the inner surface of the outer socket, when the outer socket is in said one end position extend into the inner socket through openings in the wall of said inner socket to an engaged position in which the retainers engage behind the bead of the bottle-neck in order to prevent the anti-shop-lifting device form being withdrawn. The latch means is biased to latching position but can be actuated by means of an external element to a disengaged position against the bias in order to allow movement of the retainers from the engaged position and thus withdrawal of the anti-shop-lifting device from the bottle-neck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,252, granted Jun. 23, 1998, to A. S. Volpe, discloses a container closure which converts from a child resistant to a non-child resistant configuration, where the container closure can be converted from a child resistant configuration to a non-child resistant configuration. The container closure includes an external cap, an internal cap and a locking element. The locking element is inserted between the external cap and internal cap to form the non-child resistant configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,557, granted Aug. 3, 2004, to R. L. Michael, et al., discloses a bottle security device includes an inner member and an outer member that cooperate to lock the bottle security device on the neck of a bottle. The inner member includes a plurality of fingers that are adapted to fit under the bead on a bottleneck. The inner member further includes outwardly extending teeth. The outer sleeve member of the device slides over the inner member and forces the fingers against the bottle. The outer sleeve member further includes a plurality of upwardly extending arms that have inwardly projecting teeth that engage the teeth of the inner member to lock the two members together. A key is used to separate the two pieces and release the security device from the bottle. The key extends down through the top of the outer sleeve member to physically engage the upwardly extending arms and to move them radially outward to where they disengage the inner member.
What is needed is a tamperproof bottle locking system comprising an apparatus that encloses a conventional cap onto the capped threaded neck of a bottle. In this regard, the present invention fulfils this need.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tamperproof bottle locking apparatus that fully encompasses and securely retains the cap of a bottle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tamperproof bottle locking apparatus that fully encompasses and securely retains the cap of a bottle by utilizing a miniature keyed lock.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a tamperproof bottle locking apparatus that fully encompasses and securely retains the cap of a bottle by having two pivoted semicircular members engage below the threaded neck portion of the bottle
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a tamperproof bottle locking apparatus that is easily removed by unlocking and removing the keyed locking device, opening the pivoted semicircular members and removing the present invention.
A final object of the present invention is to provide a tamperproof bottle locking apparatus that can also be used as a security and antitheft device by imbedding a security device inside the outer cap on the inner surface at the top of the present invention.
A better understanding of these and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiments when read and understood in connection with the accompanying drawings.